University of California, Irvine

About

Kristin Turney is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine. Her research, stemming from a rich tradition of social stratification inquiry, investigates the complex and dynamic role of families in creating, maintaining, and exacerbating social inequalities. In unraveling puzzles about family inequality, and about how the institution of the family interacts with other societal institutions (e.g., the educational system, the penal system), she uses a variety of theoretical perspectives, methodological strategies, and population-based data sources.

Much of Turney’s current research examines the consequences of criminal justice contact for family life. In this vein, she investigates the deleterious, beneficial, and inconsequential effects of criminal justice contact on the wellbeing of children and families over time; considers heterogeneity in the relationship between parental incarceration and family inequality; and evaluates the family, school and neighborhood mechanisms through which parental incarceration fosters resilience among children. She is currently working on a book-length manuscript, What Doing Time Does to Families: Incarceration and Family Life in the United States. In other ongoing work, she and a team of graduate students are interviewing jail inmates and their family members—including current and former romantic partners, children, and mothers—both during their incarceration and after release.

Other research projects examine the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and wellbeing throughout the life course; the consequences of relationship churning for family and child wellbeing; and how parental physical and mental health contributes to wide-ranging inequalities within and across generations. These substantive interests are accompanied by a methodological interest in causal inference.